Anyone Streaming 154.1600 Montgomery County Fire Dispatch

[jtwalker]

Is the CHIRP software easy to learn?

It's been a while since I last used it, but I don't recall it being that difficult. BTW, it is free-ware (or donor supported).

You need a special usb cable that has the two plugs that match up with side of radio, so you'd have to buy one of these --> Amazon.com: Baofeng USB Programming Cable PL2303 for Baofeng UV-5R,BF-F8HP, BF-888S,UV-82HP,GT-3 Handheld ham Radio transceiver Ham Two Way Radio with Driver CD: Industrial & Scientific

You can download CHIRP here --> Download - CHIRP

 

[Chris0516]

If i may ask what took ya down to north carolacky? I used to live near Hendersonville, NC up in the mountains in a small town called Fletcher..back from 78 to 81

My health. I am cyclist. While there are medical services in abundance in the MD-DC-VA region. I was always having to battle with traffic there. Who were ignorant to the biking laws, and the rights of cyclists' on the road. The flipside is, while the traffic is slower here in the community. It lacks access.

My (late)pediatric(1968-1976) neurosurgeon and his wife(widow since 2011) moved here in 1995, after he retired. I came down for a visit in 2009.

On the scanner front. A lot more possibilities. Three ARTCC's(ZDC, ZTL, ZJX), and ten counties. In MD, I could only get ZDC, Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel and the city departments.

 

[motorcoachdoug]

Ha now that the MD 1st system is up and running I am able to pick up a lot of the MD 1st systems plus when I am around the bay i can also pick up counties across the bay as well. I am using a KNG2 P800 for my 700/800 phase 1 and phase 2 scanning.

 

[atlong]

Back on track to the original post, I have a handful of friends/family whose PC's I maintain for them. It often crosses my mind to ask permission for me to put an old analog scanner along with a micro PC in their homes and stream the local county dispatch. I could do it in Baltimore County, Montgomery County and Howard County and a few other places. Hmmm, maybe I'll think about that as a future project. It would be unobtrusive and silent and they'd never know its there. Just piggy back on their internet connection and bam, I'm in business. They only problem is, what happens when it breaks? There's a reason I maintain their PC's for them.

 

[Bjc123]

Back on track to the original post, I have a handful of friends/family whose PC's I maintain for them. It often crosses my mind to ask permission for me to put an old analog scanner along with a micro PC in their homes and stream the local county dispatch. I could do it in Baltimore County, Montgomery County and Howard County and a few other places. Hmmm, maybe I'll think about that as a future project. It would be unobtrusive and silent and they'd never know its there. Just piggy back on their internet connection and bam, I'm in business. They only problem is, what happens when it breaks? There's a reason I maintain their PC's for them.

Yeah, that would be cool. How hard is it to do this? No guarantees but I could possibly put something together to stream it depending on how hard it is to do.

 

[wireless]

There is certainly a need to get (at least) MCFRS 7a back available by streaming. 7b is just as busy / interesting but I will take what I can get (;

 

[Spleen]

Is the CHIRP software easy to learn?

There might be a bit of a learning curve at first, but the CHIRP site is very helpful. It's open source software, and updated frequently for new radios' support, bug fixes, that sort of thing.

Sample layout for one of my Baofeng radios:

 

[atlong]

I have setup a Montgomery County, MD DFRS V7A-Fire Dispatch (154.1600) feed. The scanner is sitting in Charles Town WV, but I managed to get a decent antenna and amp set up in my attic and the reception's not bad. Please send feedback. You can find the feed here...

Montgomery County DFRS-Dispatch 7V2 Live Audio Feed

Montgomery County DFRS-Dispatch 7V2 Live Audio Feed on Broadcastify.com

www.broadcastify.com

 

[maus92]

I have setup a Montgomery County, MD DFRS V7A-Fire Dispatch (154.1600) feed. The scanner is sitting in Charles Town WV, but I managed to get a decent antenna and amp set up in my attic and the reception's not bad. Please send feedback. You can find the feed here...

Montgomery County DFRS-Dispatch 7V2 Live Audio Feed

Montgomery County DFRS-Dispatch 7V2 Live Audio Feed on Broadcastify.com

www.broadcastify.com

Shows offline for me.

 

[maus92]

It's online today. Volume is a bit low. Might be on their side as the tone outs seem to be louder than the voice. The BSI morse is distorted.

 

[atlong]

Been having some HW issues. Finally, got it migrated to permanent HW tonight. The volume seems increased a bit with the new PC. The Morse is distorted, but sometimes its not, so not sure what's up with that. As for the audio, I believe the low voice is on their side as you mentioned. If I listen to it straight off the air on any scanner it sounds the same: tones sound normal, voice very low. I'll keep tweaking it. Just wish I had a bit better reception, but I don't think it's that bad considering my distance to Rockville.

 

[maus92]

Been having some HW issues. Finally, got it migrated to permanent HW tonight. The volume seems increased a bit with the new PC. The Morse is distorted, but sometimes its not, so not sure what's up with that. As for the audio, I believe the low voice is on their side as you mentioned. If I listen to it straight off the air on any scanner it sounds the same: tones sound normal, voice very low. I'll keep tweaking it. Just wish I had a bit better reception, but I don't think it's that bad considering my distance to Rockville.

Montgomery has many sites where they can transmit VHF / FTO. The dispatcher *used* to select the best site manually, now it's probably done by CAD - or maybe it is simulcast on all sites. Anyway, the sites are licensed for 350W. The farthest west site is the PEPCO smokestack in Dickerson.

 

[atlong]

Yeah, I figured there was some type of voter system in place. I could've sworn when they switched from VHF to 800Mhz back in summer of 2000, they replaced the VHF voter system with one transmitter in downtown Rockville...but it's obvious that's not correct as you hear some dispatches come in clear, and others with a degraded signal. Anyhow, still having issues with this feed. I'm probably going to migrate it to another PC again.

 

[Citywide74]

https://www.openmhz.com/system/mocomdps. You can fine tune this to only hear the channels you want

 

[Bjc123]

Been having some HW issues. Finally, got it migrated to permanent HW tonight. The volume seems increased a bit with the new PC. The Morse is distorted, but sometimes its not, so not sure what's up with that. As for the audio, I believe the low voice is on their side as you mentioned. If I listen to it straight off the air on any scanner it sounds the same: tones sound normal, voice very low. I'll keep tweaking it. Just wish I had a bit better reception, but I don't think it's that bad considering my distance to Rockville.

Sorry I just saw this but I am having the same issue and I live in MoCo. The Voice is super low but the tones are normal and the Morse code will be distorted sometimes and normal other times. I have noticed that some dispatchers are louder than others IDK if that is them just talking louder or what but its definitely easier to hear some dispatchers rather than others.

 

[maus92]

The openmhz stream that citywide posted is very high quality. No tones however, as this stream monitors the 800 system.

 

[Bjc123]

Yeah when I listen to the Trunked 7A it is SUPER Clear. When I listen to the 154.160 patch of 7A on my analog scanner that is where it is distorted.

 

[FQ1100]

Yeah when I listen to the Trunked 7A it is SUPER Clear. When I listen to the 154.160 patch of 7A on my analog scanner that is where it is distorted.

The analog is a lower volume when u switch to a Phase 2 system it's due to noise canceling mics on Phase 2 the dispatcher has to have the mic close to there mouth and actually TALK into it we just went Phase 2 in my county and have the same issue on the lowband side

 

[atlong]

It is true. I listen to 154.1600 on the scanner providing the feed and there is no difference on the line out port into the PC sound input. What you hear on the feed is what is heard on the radio itself. If you listen long enough, you can hear the feed is good, but some dispatches and FCC ID's are better than others. It is what it is until they improve it. I'd be interested to see after the P25 phase 2 upgrade, how long the VHF dispatch with tones lasts. I have a Pro-197 and a mini PC going into a friend's house in the Germantown area this weekend to monitor the new system. It might do some other work, too. I will hopefully be able to update the db for the new system via remote PC access monitoring.

 

[atlong]

Looks like just today, there is no longer voice audio on 154.1600 (7V2). All I can copy is alert tones and CW identifiers. Voice is loud and clear on 7A on the P16 system. Not sure what's going on.